7/20/09

Lifehacker has an interesting piece today (covering a longer piece over at TorrentFreak) about RIAA spokesman Jonathan Lamy's recent comment in an interview on the subject of DRM: "DRM is dead, isn't it?"

Yes, iTunes dropped DRM, and eMusic recently added tons of new DRM-free Sony tracks. Amazon has offered DRM-free tracks for a while now. But there is still plenty of DRM out there, affecting everything from streaming music to video to e-books. I think Mr. Lamy is trying to be funny, and failing by a mile - the persistent erosion of fair use rights and the treatment of customers as criminals is annoying and at times abusive, and has done little to help artists while doing a lot to retard the growth of culture.

What do you think? Does DRM affect your life? Do you use products that employ DRM technology, or do you try to live a DRM-free life? Let me know in the comments.

2 comments:

I've bought videos from iTunes, Zune and Amazon. I buy Kindle ebooks from Amazon. I subscribe to Zune's music service. I buy games from Steam, PSN and Xbox Live Marketplace.

Despite the fact that I don't enjoy being treated like a criminal, while the guys who do pirate this stuff happily dance around the DRM's security precautions, I seem to have no problem buying into and supporting the system.

I probably tolerate it because 98% of the time, DRM doesn't prevent me from enjoying my media the way I want to. Using Zune as an example, I use one computer to manage and listen to my library, I always use the Zune player to listen to it, and I don't share music with others. Given that set up, DRM never gets in my way.

With DRM being stripped from music across the board (more-or-less), I would like to see movies follow suit. If I want to back up my movies, or simply watch one on my PC or portable device, I shouldn't need to break copyright law in order to do so.

@Will - that's a pretty exhaustive list! Thanks for sharing. And I think you've shown that people who are law-abiding and live within the DRM setup the way they are "supposed to" still have perfectly valid reasons to sometimes make a copy of a file. I feel like DRM would be much less of a hot-button issue if the default stance of the rights-holders was not one that cast their customers as guilty by default.

Why?

This is my place to rant, rave, gush, and whatever other verbs come to mind about the music I love, and the technology I use to find/listen to/share it. It's also a place for me to post my own musical creations for all to enjoy.